The shutdown will furlough approximately 87% of the Education Department's workforce and halt investigations into civil rights complaints at schools and universities, according to the department's contingency plan. New federal grant awards will also cease, though previously disbursed funding will continue flowing to institutions.
"The government shutdown may have far-reaching negative impacts across federal agencies and public research universities," said Dr. Waded Cruzado, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. "The longer this impasse lasts, the more devastating the impacts will be. The clock is ticking."
The shutdown comes as the Education Department operates with roughly 2,500 employees — nearly half the 4,100 staffers it had when President Donald Trump took office in January. Mass layoffs upheld by the Supreme Court in July had already significantly reduced the department's capacity.
The suspension of civil rights investigations represents a critical disruption for students alleging discrimination based on race, sex, or disability status. The department's Office for Civil Rights had already lost approximately half its staff during the March layoffs, raising concerns about a growing backlog of complaints.
Department data shows declining resolution rates for civil rights cases even as new complaints from families have increased. Work on these pending cases will now stop entirely during the shutdown.
Federal student aid operations will remain largely functional in the short term. The department plans to continue disbursing Pell Grants and federal loans to approximately 9.9 million students across some 5,400 colleges. Student loan borrowers must still make payments on the $1.6 trillion federal loan portfolio.
